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No New Senate Leader Until January?

Malcolm A. Smith, the Democratic leader in the State Senate. (Photo: Michael Appleton for The New York Times)

The battle for control of the State Senate continues.

Senator Carl Kruger, one of the three dissident Democrats who have refused to go along with the rest of their party’s pick for Senate leader, said in an interview on Tuesday night that the group will not make a decision until the new Legislature is seated in January.

Mr. Kruger, a Brooklyn lawmaker, said he and his two fellow dissidents — Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. and Senator Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx — would prefer that a Latino Democrat lead the chamber.

“That’s not necessarily who’s on the right or left, it’s who best can do the job,” Mr. Kruger said in a telephone interview after the three senators had dinner together in the Bronx.
His fellow Democrats have already reaffirmed their support for Malcolm A. Smith, the current Senate minority leader, and are growing increasingly frustrated by their recalcitrant colleagues. Mr. Kruger said, “Hispanic empowerment is our guiding factor,” but some fellow Democrats see the move as a naked power grab.

Mr. Kruger and Mr. Diaz said on Tuesday that the three senators would also seek a statewide referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage, as a way of forgoing a vote on the issue. The issue has been a sticking point for Mr. Diaz, a Pentacostal minister who has vowed not to support any leadership candidate who brings a same-sex marriage bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

“We have agreed that gay marriage should be a referendum,” Mr. Diaz said. “Let the people decide.”

The comments come a week after Democrats won 32 of 62 seats in the Senate, a majority in the chamber for the first time in more than 40 years. But no leadership candidate has yet to claim 32 votes. Mr. Kruger said his group, known in Albany as the “gang of three,” would be consulting with outside experts over the next several weeks to come up with their own platform and then decide which potential leader could meet their goals.

“We won’t know the majority leader until the opening day in January,” Mr. Kruger said.

Mr. Espada and Mr. Diaz have said they expected that Democrats would control the chamber next year, but Mr. Kruger said Tuesday that both Mr. Smith and Dean G. Skelos, the current Senate majority leader and a Long Island Republican, “are two individuals that have not necessarily taken themselves out of the running, but they haven’t put themselves into the running.”

¡que lástima! a travesty of representative democracy. first you use race, now you use gays. your political posturing is odious. you really have no decency. this is why obama won. we are tired of politicians like you. i can’t wait til you get out of office. shame on you.

What a charade. Three New York CIty Democrats are going to vote to re-elect a White suburban Republican State Senate Majority Leader. Isn’t there enough “comedy” already in NYS government without this non-sense ??

I should point out that, legally, there is no provision in either statutory law or the New York State Constitution to conduct referenda on any topic.

Assuming you could set aside the legal challenges that would be associated with any attempt to even conduct a statewide referendum on gay marriage, any result would be non-binding. The state legislature could then ignore the result, and be perfectly within its rights to do so.

Mr. Kruger and Mr. Diaz,
Making gay marriage an issue in this is ridiculous and irrelevant. You both should be fired for even mentioning it. Unbelievable, and horribly embarrassing for New York. What are you possibly thinking? Or not thinking? Count your blessings for taking control of the legislature from the Republicans. Clearly, neither of you have the wisdom to be representing the state of New York.

Why don’t we just throw the entire legislature out, bar any one of them from running again, and elect some halfway intelligent people; even halfway intelligent would be better than that pack of morons.

Diaz apparently doesn’t think very much of himself as a state senator if he refuses to do the job he was elected to do, represent his constituents. He knows gay marriage might pass and he’d rather fail in his duties as a legislator than take that chance. Sure, a referendum so he and his buddies can spread the same vicious lies that the evangelicals did in California and try to frighten the state. It’s the state of New York, Mr. D., not the State of Ruben Diaz.

We should have a referendum on every single piece of legislation, Ruben, then we wouldn’t need you or your joke friends at all. BUT, only if every single solitary voter in New York State casts a ballot, otherwise the referendum is void.

There’s nothing smart about this – -it’s simply a group of unprincipled, self-interested hacks who will use anything to try to line their own pockets. One day it’s Latino empowerment, the next day it’s “let’s bash the gays.”

There’s nothing these guys won’t say or do, but eventually, they’re all going to hang out a price tag and wait to be bought.

This is outrageous. These guys ran and were elected as Democrats just days ago. If they don’t feel that they can serve as Democrats, they should resign and run again in a special election as Republicans, Independents or whatever they choose to be and LET THE VOTERS DECIDE THEIR future.

Running as a Democrat and then immediately leaving the caucus is misleading, bordering on fraudulent.

Unbelievable that the desire to bash gays would lead to a travesty like this. You don’t let the people decide when the matter in question is protecting the rights of a persecuted minority. These three have to be put out of their offices, quickly. Until then, the public should express its disgust until they get in line and behave like leaders.

It is amazing that people in this country are finally getting to imagine post-racial politics and the State of New York, which should be on the vanguard of progressive politics, is still run on nepotism, patronage and dirty politics from playing the race card to playing the gay card. After President-elect Obama showed just how far an American can get by shunning racial politics and running on his own merits, this gang of three should be ashamed of themselves.

And putting gay marriage up to a referendum means abdicating legislative responsibility and putting a civil right up to a popular vote. What if slavery had been put up to a popular vote? Segregation? What if immigrants’ rights were put to a popular vote today? The civil rights of this gang-of-three’s constituencies would be trampled by a tyranny of the majority of Americans who are (unjustifiably) against many immigrants’ rights.

Absolutely embarrassing. As a Latino for them to make any claim that they want to see Latino leadership is an insult and pandering to Latinos, not much different than what McCain did when he selected Palin to try and gain disaffected female voters who originally supported Clinton in the general election.

This should be about the best possible individual to lead the Dems in the state senate. And I’m further disgusted that they would use the unfortunate cultural bias of Latinos regarding gay marriage to try and maintain their base supporters. Go ahead and leave it to the voters and don’t be surprised you three end up out of office next term. Disgraceful.

Reverand Diaz Sr. is no Democrat. The good reverand is more right wing then Karl Rove. In his district he was more concerned about a prison then he was about school children or health care. I am not supprised about the stand he is taking, I don’t know why anybody would be, the man is a right wing Republican conservative who only calls himself a Democrat because the district he represents is in a Democratic area. He is wolf in sheeps clothing. He is the reason why we should enfore the seperation of church and state .

Sounds like the politics of hate. Hate that there’s a black man as president and governor and now of the Senate. Hate of gays because you’re a Pentecostal “minister” of love.

Yet the two positions are logically incompatible: they don’t want a fairly elected black leader in the Senate, but they do want other people’s rights or putative rights put up for a vote.

Let us not come to the day where we put Pentecostals up for a vote – many established religions consider them to be a cult. Let us not come to the day when we decide that Oprah’s ratings are too high, so she must be taken off TV.

I guess the only solution is to wait for the next election and target these 3. They were elected as Democrats and should vote in the caucus for the leader of their choice—but to jeopardize the party’s control of the NYS Senate is grounds for destroying their political careers. Isn’t one Joe Lieberman enough!
As for the issue of same-sex marriage, New Yorkers can get married in Massachusetts, Canada, and Connecticut so not having the ceremony legal in New York is just political symbolism and manipulation and unworthy of a New York legislator.

I’m disgusted! I guess for these three traitors it’s simply about egomaniac deals – giving them a committee chairmanship or a nice stipend would silence them, trust me that’s what this is about. Carl Kruger is a WHITE right-wing nutcase from Brooklyn – why would he care about Hispanic representation?! These three were sweethearts with the former and the current Republican majority leaders, and now there is danger that they lose their privileges from that love affair. And the real disgusting thing about it is that they carry out their battle on the back of a minority – gay people.

They run on the Democratic line – benefiting from the Obama landslide. If I as a voter vote for a candidate that is marked as a Democrat on the ballot, then I expect that person, when elected, to acct accordingly. Otherwise I feel betrayed. I don’t know these people personally, so I have to trust the “label.” Obviously they are not Democrats but some right-wing muddleheads. Then I must say you have betrayed the voters. Democratic Party officials: Expel them from the party!

Diaz has long been a rapid homophobe and a reactionary. A truly disgusting character who illustrates why religion and politics shouldn’t mix. That goes for Kruger, too. These three so-called Democrats are acting just like Republicans. Maybe they’re taking their cues from David Patterson, who’s increasingly looking like one.

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